An upcoming obligation requires me to shoot award photos at an indoor dog show. Images will be of one or two people standing alongside one dog. A seamless BG with a few props will be used. The dogs are a giant breed (leonberger) that would remind you of a really large golden retriever, but with a black face. I'm really anxious about this assignment, because I am an available light, and continuous light source, photographer only. We own a pair of Canon 580ex units and the ST-E2 transmitter and light stands. I have access to additional 580ex units, for added frontal fill or BG illumination. We'd used a 1Dx or 1Ds Mark III, probably with the 70-200, or the 135/2 lenses. We could shoot tethered into LR.

I would be willing to skip the Canon speedlights and instead rent a light kit from Lensrentals (or other source), if that would allow for more predictable results. What I'll guess are adequately powered AlienBee kits are available there.

What modifiers would you apply to the Canon speedlights for improved light quality over naked flash, please? Would you treat the flash unit(s) for BG lighting the same way? How many lights, having your druthers, might you use?

"Predictability" isn't an issue, as using a Speedlite in Manual mode will be just as predictable as using a monolight. What you'll get from a rented monolight, though, is power. Filling a large soft box or parabolic umbrella will eat some light, so the added power may give you some flexibility that you wouldn't have with Speedlites. On the other hand, with the good high-ISO capabilities of the cameras you mentioned, that's not as big an issue as it might have been in the past.

The problem I foresee with using Speedlites is the ST-E2 transmitter. It's an optical trigger, and in a large room there may not be a close-enough bounce surface to allow the signal to reach both Speedlites if they're placed in the best positions relative to the camera. I'd look into borrowing or renting radio triggers (or even buying three of the excellent Yongnuo YN-622C transceivers if you think you might want to start using your Speedlites more often).

I would want a battery pack ( off brand OK) to speed up recycle time. You seldom get the dog and owner looking at you at the same time. Telling the owner to just look and you will get the dogs attention is worthless. They will try to get the dog to look but you have no shot because they are looking at the dog. When you do get a clean shot the last thing you need is a recycling flash to delay the shot. A squeaky toy is a must and works 95% of the time.

Shoot on full manual. After you lock in the exposure you are good to go for the rest of the shoot.

Tethered is an interesting addition. Is the goal tone management or organizing subject data for client contact, ordering, etc.? Would you have an assistant handling the computer? (Way better.) I haven't tethered directly into LR for a while. Had problems with camera drop (electronically!) but that's possibly cable stuff. I use EOS Utility for interiors but you need speed. At a March gathering we shot humans into LR and IIRC that was direct to LR with person staffing laptop full time. Love tethering. Having others watch the screen CAN increase interest and sales. You know best. Might not be appropriate as the dogs may need fewer distractions.

Those battery packs absolutely necessary, and the good batteries and charger to go with them. Perhaps time to get two Einsteins? Sounds like there will be A.C. power. I love mine, wish I had done it way sooner.

Some sidelighting differentiation would help tones in the dog's face if head is all black. Key light off axis.

Tethering comes about because I so lack confidence in my lighting choices in this setting, I need the chance to make on-set changes based up tethered image feedback. Since I donate all of this work, it has nothing to do with stimulating sales, but certainly it can be nice for the subjects to see images quickly.

By Einstein units, do you refer to these soft boxes for use with our Canon speed lights, or do you mean higher power moonlights?

TIP - get a little "squeeker" out of a pet toy to get the dogs attention, but do not overuse it. The dog will look in the direction of the noise out of curiousity. You can also use a noisy bag like an empty snack chip bag but only if the room is not that noisy.

I just bet you will know how to light. Try it pre-event if you are really unsure. I see the biggest problem. Recycle time and catching the human with eye contact. Be it dogs, horses or chickens. The owner-trainers job is having the animal in position. never fails after the shot said or not why didn't you have me looking good have lots of devises at hand. Toys. clicker wrappers, bags. Don't hesitate to say mam, sir J. R.

JR's advice very good: if they ask you to take their picture you can ask that they pay attention to your direction.

Einsteins would represent a purchase which isn't supported by the work, so perhaps the best option is the bigger external battery packs that take 8 AAs and offer rapid recycle to be ready immediately for another image. But if you do other paying work in photography this job could be the practice session for more work now made easier with the 2 einsteins I'd recommend if more future work is coming along. I *love* my Einsteins and wonder why I tried to use the speedlights for so long. (I had some aging Norman power packs, too.)

The cost of two battery packs, 16 rechargeable batteries and a slave (you prob already have the slave) isat least a bit of the way toward getting an Einstein. One head is a possible solution with a big softbox. Big=perhaps 3x4 feet for this. I liked 4x6 feet for this even better, if you have all that light from a strobe like the Paul Buff Einstein.

Look here: www.paulcbuff.com and click Einstein tab or menu block. Then either two of their umbrellas or two less-expesive offerings somewhere else. (Buff modifiers cost reasonable $$) White umbrellas with removable black backing offer shoot-THROUGH or shoot-as-reflector option to you.

Thank you all for this thoughtful advice. We do enough available light work with digs to understand the important of the attention tricks you've mentioned. Those things can break, or make, the shot to be sure. You all have listed some good ones.

For now I've decided to stick with the Canon speedlights, and will probably use 4 or 5 units. But if this work is going to become habit, higher power monolights might need to enter our picture.

Some weeks ago, FM Lighting forum members were supportive in my asking of questions related to an event shoot that I was required to do. I was, in particular, anxious about needing to use strobes as I felt only comfortable with continues or available light. I'll post results of what I walked away with, and a btw setup that shows the 4-speedlight setup. The images shown below are post-processed final versions.

The 580's were fitted with a 3rd party battery pack Yongnuo YN-560 ($50 on Amazon) to reduce recycle time and lengthen the day.

My mistakes were to have not replaced the speedlight batteries throughout the day, as recycle time began to lag and I missed too many shots where the fills, in particular, didn't fire. I think my key lights should probably have been managed differently, as there wasn't much "key" by the time it reached subjects at camera right. So this left a fair amount of post work to cover those areas toward frame-right. The muslin wasn't taped adequately to the carpet floor, and this too, left post work to get rid of wrinkles.

It didn't take long to see that more strobe power would have allowed me to work at f11 and lower ISO, instead the 8-9 and ISO 500 that prevailed here.

I thank the Forum here for their support, and I walk away from this 1st-time project with some feeling that I could do better next time.